Edward Turley 1816-1900 (General)

by peteressex , Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 07:08 (5565 days ago) @ howellshouse

Comparing the genesreunited.co.uk family tree of the lady here called "howellshouse" and the Minsterworth tree of Sterry on sterryworldwide.com gives ample consistency on the identity of the Edward Turley under investigation.

Given the spectacular proliferation that tends to accompany this surname, however, it's perhaps surprising that nothing earlier has shown up as far as I know.

But nothing is often certain if it comes from the days of widespread inability to read, write or therefore spell, the tendency to abbreviate, and/or the propensity to mix English and Latin. I have a note of an Edwin Turley, born c. 1849, as the fourth of the thirteen children (or twelve if some of the speculation here is justified) of Edward Turley and Mary Ann nee Sterry. In view of the tendency for fathers' first names to be passed to sons, it remains possible that, as one reply has suggested, the original records just had an abbreviation "Ed" or similar. Or worse if you care for obfuscation: I had a great-uncle, George Edmund Essex, born Cheltenham 1884, thus verified in the 1891 census and elsewhere including 1908 Lydney baptisms. He was probably the "G Essex" listed in a 1910 Lydney street directory, and is highly likely to have been the person listed by his army sergeant at Hounslow Barracks, Middlesex, in the 1901 census as George Edward Essex, aged 17, born Cheltenham, so you can't even confine "Ed" to being Edward or Edwin. Or Edgar. Or Edred. Or plain Eddie...